You probably haven’t heard of Shyma, a little-known 21-year-old singer (some news agencies list her age as 25), but she has caused quite a stir in Egypt.

She has now been sentenced to two years in jail, as well as being fined the equivalent of around R7 600, by a court in Cairo.

Apparently her latest music video was “inciting debauchery”, with this from the Guardian:

The director of the clip, Mohamed Gamal, received the same sentence. Both can appeal against the ruling.

Shyma was arrested on 18 November, police said, following complaints about the video for her song I Have Issues.

In the video, she appears singing in her underwear and suggestively eating an apple and a banana before a classroom of young men.

The video created a stir on social media in conservative Egypt and was discussed on TV talkshows.

The video has been yanked offline, but you’ll get the drift from this below:

I think we can agree that the biggest crime there is the song itself.

As for the rest – did anyone see the class number? A screengrab:

Sadly Shyma’s remorse wasn’t sufficient:

In a Facebook post at the time, Shyma apologised for the video and said she had not anticipated the backlash.

“I didn’t imagine all this would happen and that I would be subjected to such a strong attack from everyone, as a young singer … who has dreamt from a young age of being a singer,” she wrote.

2017, and women are being locked up for a bloody music video.

Can Egypt come for Nickelback next?

Jokes – grow up Egypt, you’re behaving like trash.

[source:guardian]